Tag Archives: Correspondence

Following my email correspondence to Jake May of the PCA Marketing Team we arranged to meet on Thursday 8 May 2014 (originally scheduled for 7 May) for discuss The Future of Plymouth exhibition further.

During the installation on 28 April 2014, Judith Robinson had mentioned that there would be a celebratory reception of the exhibition on Friday 9 May. Therefore an e-vite had to be produced of which I volunteered to design based on similar text used in other Council House Art invites which Judith supplied.

I could not be certain that everyone who had accepted the Facebook invite would RSVP as per invite, so I created a spreadsheet of all the names that RSVP’d and emailed it to museumevents@plymouth.gov.uk:

Kath Howard had set up a blog called http://thefutureofplymouthexhibition.wordpress.com/. Photographs of the projects development, the proposal and other information were added to the blog. I suggested creating a QR Code of the blog address to be placed on the poster and leaflet:

Facebook group post of Helanie Moore suggesting QR code

I replied to Judith’s email on 28 April 2014 with all of the above documents/information as follows:

As mentioned in an earlier post (date) I had drafted up a proposal for the exhibition as a starting point. Following input from fellow exhibition members during group meetings in March 2014 the proposal was updated as follows:

COUNCIL HOUSE EXHIBITION

An artist as curator exhibition between the students of Plymouth College of Art’s third year BA (Hon) Fine Art, Critical & Curatorial Practices including Jess Bent, Maddy Crossley, William Danby, Sarah Hughes, Kath Howard, Helanie Moore and Tiffany Smith, in collaboration with local artist Lee McDonald.

TITLE

The Future of Plymouth

OBJECTIVE

The theme of this proposal has been inspired by the enthusiasm and ambition of recent years in developing the city of Plymouth into a cultural centre of exciting and innovative activity for residents and visitors alike.

This exhibition will focus on transition, change and looking forward toward the future. However, Plymouth is also a city rich in history and heritage, something of which the community is proud of and gives the city an enhanced and multi-faceted prominence.

“Study the past if you would define the future” – Confucius

With this in mind, the artwork to be placed within the Council House foyer will work toward demonstrating a futuristic, avant-garde quality while highlighting the traditional internal features of the 1950s building.

The main piece eight (2014) will be a sculptural viewing device [dimensions: 2.5m(L) x 1.5m(W) x 2m(H) approx.] to be placed within the centre of the foyer space. This will be a fully functioning sculpture that can rotate 360° allowing visitors to interact with the artwork. Through observing the space, we recognised that the foyer is a central hub that connects the surrounding rooms that affords a transitional quality. The sculpture will act as an intervention within the space – changing how one navigates through the foyer without causing obstruction.

We feel the audience participatory element is an important factor, giving the spectator an active rather than passive role, as well as a sense of empowerment and engagement. As artists as curators, we have also taken into account that the building is a formal space of serious nature and individuals visiting the building may have feelings of anxiety and trepidation. By placing an interactive piece within the space we hope to ease visitor concerns and give them back a sense of control and belonging, creating a positive impact on the audience.

The piece will be directed toward the engraved tablet commemorating the history of the reconstruction of the Plymouth. This will allow the viewer to consider the city’s historical nature, but also abstract what they are viewing. The sculpture will focus on certain parts of the tablet, mirroring and patterning the selected text by use of internal reflectors. This kaleidoscopic effect will act as a metaphor for Plymouth’s multi-faceted historical and contemporary magnitude and emphasise the importance of the city’s heritage in directing its progress.

The sculpture will be accompanied by 8 wall pieces [dimensions: 60cm x 60cm] comprised of digitally manipulated images of several of the listed features within the Council House Building. In line with the nature of the sculpture, these images have been abstracted using an 8-sided kaleidoscopic filter. The pieces evoke a sense of curiosity by obscuring some of the original characteristics of the space, including a section of the engraved commemorative tablet.

The works included in this exhibition are intended to represent Plymouth’s history as a platform in developing its future.

—

On March 25 2014 Jess drafted up a Risk Assessment for the exhibition:

Jess Bent had also suggested asking the Council as to whether there would be a possibility of advertising the exhibition on the Big Screen in the Piazza.

Now that we had the final proposal and risk assessment drafted up, I sent an email to Judith Robinson with these documents attached on 2 April 2014 along with a jpeg file of the floor and wall plan I had drafted up for their information:

Ellena Simpson emailed Rebecca Wickes, National Trust with the email addresses of each student involved in the Saltram House Orangery exhibition and also inquired about asking Deep Blue Sound for assistance. We received the following response:

Hi everyone

Thanks for the contact details.

It was great to meet you all last month, your project sounds very exciting and I’m really pleased that Saltram is involved. I’ve attached a volunteer registration form for your all to pop your details on – this way you will be able to claim back travel expenses to and from Saltram for the duration of this project. When it comes to putting in references, just put Edith, we won’t need any more than that.

The best person to approach at DbS Music is Olly Wickes (email given). I’ve planted the seed with him already and he is keen to know more so, over to you!

I look forward to seeing you all again soon and hearing more about the exhibition.

Although the submission date for the open call I am using has now ended, I decided to try to contact the artists that I am interested in using, to see whether they would be hypothetically interested in the proposal.

I emailed Darren Harvey-Regan, Naoko Ito, Ula Dajerling and Abigail Reynolds outlining my proposal and the reasons why I would like to feature their work.

Thus far I am received a response from Ito as follows:

Dear Helanie,

Thank you for checking my art works and contacting me. I am feeling you are working hard on the assignment, which is great. I do feel comfortable you use my works on your assignment. Please keep me informed if you need something from me.

Good luck with your project!

Naoko

I was extremely pleased with her kind response and helpful words.

I have been unable to find contact information for Kader Attia or his management, so I emailed info@edgeofarabia.com – an organisation which features his work and biography and inquired as to whether they would be able to assist me in contacting him.

During my initial investigation into current curator open calls for 2014, I also noticed an open call for artists and curators on callforcurators.com dated 10 January 2014 for new exhibitions during 2014. The call was on behalf of art:i:curate, a website that “organizes exhibitions based on what its network likes” (Call for Curators, 2014, online). As well as creating an opportunity for artists and curators to curate collections online, there is also the opportunity for popular online exhibitions to be exhibited offline.

I decided to sign up to the art:i:curate website and emailed the organization for further information as follows:

As a student of Plymouth College of Art & Design, studying my final year of a BA (Hon) in Fine Art, Critical & Curatorial Studies I would be extremely interested in gaining further information with regard to your open call – particularly for curators, detailed on your website callforcurators.com on 10 January 2014.

Following group curatorial projects within the College and internships at Plymouth Arts Centre and Peninsula Arts, Plymouth University I am keen to start developing my own curatorial projects before completion of my final year of studies.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Helanie Moore

_______________

I received the following reply:

From:

Myrto Katsimicha (myrto@articurate.net)

Sent:

13 January 2014 17:23:13

To:

helanie moore (helanie@live.co.uk)

Dear Helanie,

Thank you for your email and your interest in our initiative.

Please find our submission documents attached.

As a curator, you can suggest artists you work with for the platform and submit/curate their profiles. If your suggested artist(s) are selected for an offline exhibition, you will be working on the curatorial concept and framework.

Also, your name will be mentioned ad a curator on each artist’s profile submitted/suggested through you.

I am unsure at present which would be the best option for me to respond to out of the three open calls I have looked at so far but I will hopefully have more of an inkling after the group discussion with our tutor tomorrow.